The Roland Burris saga is over, as Democratic Senate leaders have accepted his credentials, clearing the way for him to be sworn in as the junior senator from Illinois by the end of this week.

The decision ends an embarrassing chapter in Democratic politics and allows the Senate to move on after the Burris spectacle dominated the opening week of the 111th Congress

In a statement issued after a 45-minute meeting between Senate officials and Burris’ lawyers, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said Burris is the senator-designate from Illinois now that the secretary of the Senate has approved his latest credentials.

“Accordingly, barring objections from Senate Republicans, we expect Senator-designee Burris to be sworn in and formally seated later this week,” the statement said. “We are working with him and the office of the vice president to determine the date and time of the swearing-in.”

The statement marks a major departure for Democratic leaders, who reversed themselves and decided to take their lumps in the media for a short period of time, rather than allowing the issue to drag on indefinitely. After first saying they would never seat an appointee from the scandal-tarred Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Democrats relented and decided to lay out a three-step process to seat Burris.

On Monday, Democrats dropped one of the steps — forcing the Senate Rules and Administration Committee and the full Senate to review the legality of the appointment.

“As we had outlined to Mr. Burris, a path needed to be followed that respects the rules of the Senate,” the Reid-Durbin statement said. “We committed to Mr. Burris that once those requirements were satisfied, we would be able to proceed. We are pleased that everything is now in order, we congratulate Senator-designee Burris on his appointment and we look forward to working with him in the 111th Congress.”

Republicans are not expected to object to Burris’ seating.

Burris, appearing at an afternoon news conference in Chicago, said he was "humbled" by the decision of Senate leaders to accept his appointment and said he recognized that the issue had caused a rift among his party.

But he said demands of his state were too great to leave the state without a second senator.

"Our state finds itself in the midst of an unfortunate time," he said, later adding: "It's always darkest before dawn."

The handling of the matter also infuriated several Democratic senators and led to a heated 30-minute debate Sunday evening, further evidence that the issue was proving to be an unwelcome distraction.

Burris dispatched his attorneys Monday afternoon to make the case that his paperwork complies with an obscure rule that Democrats initially used to block his appointment to Barack Obama’s Senate seat.

Burris' attorneys walked into the office of the secretary of the Senate at 2:50 p.m. for a meeting that last approximately 45 minutes, and refused to answer questions from the press.

The decision of Senate lawyers and Nancy Erickson, the secretary of the Senate, to deem Burris' credentials as valid was crucial. If they had rejected Burris again, the distraction would have lingered for weeks.

Durbin was clearly relieved that the debate over Burris' legitimacy as a Senate appointee was over. Durbin had been criticized, both publicly and privately by Senate Democrats, for his role in the Burris affair.

"We received today new documents from the governor and secretary of state which conformed with Senate rules," Durbin said, meaning Burris can now be sworn into office as Obama's replacement.

Durbin called the situation surrounding Burris' appointment "awkward and painful" for him personally due to his long relationship with the new senator-designate, and he blamed Blagojevich for deliberately provoking a confrontation with Senate leaders. Durbin declined to say whether he would support Burris if the senator-designate seeks to run for the seat in 2010.

Burris, the 71-year-old former Illinois attorney general, set off media frenzy last week when he was denied entry to the Senate because he had failed to produce appointment papers that had the signature of the Illinois secretary of state, Jesse White. White initially refused to sign the papers. He later signed a separate document calling the appointment valid, setting off another legal debate.

Burris’ attorneys argued that the signature on the separate document was enough to comply with a Senate rule in place since 1884 that appointments must be certified with signatures of a governor and secretary of state.

In a statement, Erickson said she advised the Senate leadership that the signature met the requirements under the Senate rule.

If he didn’t get seated, Burris signaled he would have sued in federal court calling the Senate's action unconstitutional.

Senate Republicans have not indicated that they will object to the appointment. But Illinois Republicans are blasting the move.

"By failing to strip Rod Blagojevich of his Senate appointment power, Democrats chose to trust a madman over the people of Illinois,” said Andy McKenna, chairman of the Illinois Republican Party.

And Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, called the Democrats' handling of the situation a "national embarrassment."

The final decision by Reid and Durbin was no surprise given the high-profile PR campaign Burris had executed on his way to Washington. And the uncomfortable questions of race — Burris would be the only black senator — had been giving Democrats headaches for two weeks.

Durbin and Reid had already been signaling that they were backing down from their once absolute statements about accepting a Blagojevich appointment.

The first sign that they would cave in came after a 45-minute meeting in the Capitol last week, after which Reid and Durbin laid out a three-part process for Burris to win his Senate seat. The three steps included testifying before a state committee about the circumstances of the appointment, winning White’s signature, and having the matter referred to the Rules Committee, which reviews election disputes and can vote on whether to seat a member.

He met those standards, Democrats say, and will now be sworn in as a U.S. senator, just days before Barack Obama takes the oath of office on the west front steps of the Capitol.